


There's Color Everywhere

by buoyantsaturn



Series: What's This? [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Genre: It's Valentine's Day, M/M, Nightmare Before Christmas AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-16 16:17:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13639833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buoyantsaturn/pseuds/buoyantsaturn
Summary: The sights, the sounds, they're everywhere and all around. Nico's never felt so good before. This empty place inside of him is filling up, he simply cannot get enough, he wants it, oh, he wants it, oh, he wants it for his own--A sequel to What's This?





	There's Color Everywhere

**Author's Note:**

> happy valentines day!! the promised sequel a few days early but i managed to finish this tonight so i thought i'd just post it now instead of waiting  
> didn't proofread at all cuz its late but i hope you like it!!

For the duration of their relationship, Will had been the one to perform all of the romantic acts, so Nico decided that it was time to step up his game. He wasn’t sure exactly how to be romantic, considering his lonely upbringing, so he went to the first person he could think of.

Reyna, one of the town’s many vampires, was one of the few people who wasn’t afraid of Nico. He didn’t know if she had any idea how to be romantic, but surely they could come up with something together if they put their minds to it.

Nico entered Reyna’s house without knocking, only shouting a “Hey,” into the room as he closed the door behind him. Reyna came around the corner, drinking from a mug that Nico could only assume contained blood, and offered a  _ hey _ in return.

“I need your help,” Nico told her. “I need to know how to be romantic.”

Reyna snorted into her mug, and had to wipe a few drops of blood from around her mouth with the back of her hand. “You?  _ Romance? _ And you came to me?” Nico glared at her until she stopped laughing at him, and she finally said, “What could you possibly need help with?”

“I have a boyfriend,” Nico said, his cheeks gaining a soft pink as his gaze drifted away from Reyna. “His name is Will, he lives in Christmas Town. He made me a bunch of cookies in the Fall, so I wanna do something nice for him now, but I don’t know what to do.”

“Well, I think a dinner date is usually a safe bet,” Reyna offered. “You could bake something for him?”

“Do you know how to bake?” Nico asked with a raised eyebrow.

“No, do you?” Reyna replied, and Nico shook his head. “I guess we’ll find out together, then.”

 

They made approximately six batches of sugar cookies, then took the best-looking ones from each batch and frosted them. They looked nowhere near as nice as the cookies that Will had made for Nico, but Nico really hoped that it was the thought that counted. The last thing that Nico did was write  _ DINNER? _ across seven cookies with frosting and a knife, before he placed them in a simple cardboard box lined with wax paper. 

He set out to Christmas Town as night began to fall on Halloween Town, meaning that a good portion of Christmas Town was heading to sleep by the time that Nico got to Will’s. He knocked on the door, nervously tapping on the sides of the box while he waited. The door opened, revealing a yawning Will in his pajamas, who smiled brightly when his eyes landed on Nico.

“Hey, Darlin’,” Will said softly, and gestured into the house. “Come on in.” He allowed Nico into the house before closing the door behind him, and then moved in for a hug before noticing the box in Nico’s hands. “Whatcha got there?”

“It’s for you,” Nico told him, holding the box out a little awkwardly. 

“Aw, babe, you didn’t have to get me anything!” Will replied, lifting the lid of the box without taking it from Nico’s hands. “Dinner?”

“We never went to dinner in Valentine City,” Nico reminded him, staring down at the box while his spoke. “I thought we could go, if you still wanted to.”

“Oh, Nico, of course I do!” Will exclaimed. He held Nico’s face in his hands and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “You’re adorable, I can’t wait!”

Nico huffed and scrunched up his nose. “Don’t call me adorable.”

“Well, I can’t lie,” Will responded, and he pulled away. “Come on, let’s go sit down or something.” 

He led Nico further into the house until they were near the kitchen, and Nico held out the box as he said, “Uh, what should I do with these?”

Will hesitated, glancing at the box before quickly looking away. “Oh, uh, well--”

“I could just throw them out,” Nico offered. “They don’t look very good and they might not even be safe to eat, but maybe you and I could make some better cookies?”

Will sighed in relief. “Oh, good. I didn’t want to offend you by not eating them, but they are very...burnt.” He pulled Nico into the kitchen and left Nico to throw away the box while Will gathered ingredients. “I don’t have much right now, but we could make either sugar cookies or chocolate chip, you choose.”

Nico leaned into Will’s side and looked down at the ingredients - there were definitely a few differences between these ingredients and the ones he had used earlier that day. “Sugar cookies are the kinda plain ones, right?”

“Yeah, but we can frost them if you’d like.”

“Then let’s do those.”

Will directed Nico to the mixing bowls while he collected the measuring cups, and Will walked Nico through the process of properly making sugar cookies. Will told Nico that he was doing this so that Nico would know for the next time he tried to bake for Will, to which Nico replied, “Yeah, right, like I’ll try that again.”

When Will put the first batch in the oven, Nico looked down at himself to see that his black clothes were coated with flour. Will turned to face him again and Nico saw that he was spotless aside from his hands. 

“How are you clean?” Nico demanded, and Will pressed a kiss to the floury tip of Nico’s nose.

“Practice,” Will answered. “Let’s make that frosting.”

It was a much quicker process then making the cookies, so Nico mostly observed and sneakily threw flour onto Will’s clothes when he thought Will wouldn’t notice.

“Do you think I don’t know you’re doing that?” Will asked, wrapping an arm around Nico’s waist and pulling him close. Nico grinned and flicked flour directly into Will’s face, causing Will to shout, “Hey!”

He tugged Nico even closer and pressed their lips together, which Nico only saw as a good enough distraction to dip his fingers into the frosting and smearing it along Will’s cheek.

“Oh, you think you’re so cute, don’t you?” Will said.

“Definitely not,” Nico replied, and Will wiped a scoop of frosting down Nico’s nose.

They had to make a new batch of frosting by the time the cookies had baked.

 

Nico waited anxiously at the holiday doorways. He only had so many changes of clothes in his mausoleum, but he tried to dress in his nicest pair of ripped up pants and the one button-down shirt he owned. 

He realized after about ten minutes that he probably got there a bit too early, though before he had the chance to think that he’d been stood up, Will wandered out of the woods beside the Christmas door. He was dressed much nicer than Nico, wearing a sweater with a button-down underneath, and pants with no holes in them at all.

“Hey, Darlin’,” Will greeted him, kissing him sweetly. “I’m not late, am I? I hope you weren’t waiting very long.”

“It’s fine,” Nico assured him, grabbing one of Will’s hands and lacing their fingers. “Have you been to Valentine City? I feel like I might be underdressed.”

“You look amazing, there’s no need to worry,” Will promised him. 

Nico huffed. “You’re one to talk.”

Will beamed down at him. “You know, I never know if you’re flirting or trying to insult me, but whichever it is, it usually has the opposite effect. But I think it’s cute that you have no idea how to flirt.”

Nico groaned and tucked his face into Will’s collar. “Shut  _ up, _ can we just go already?”

“Of course, Darlin’,” Will said with a laugh, and pulled Nico to the heart-shaped door. He turned the knob and held it open with an, “After you.”

Nico tugged on Will’s hand as he hopped through the door, and the two of them fell through the portal together, hand in hand. They were surrounded by warm colors and glittering hearts, laughing giddily as they spiraled down.

They landed in a pile of heart-shaped pillows that must have been placed there by the Valentine citizens for the safety of their visitors, and they made their way into the city. 

The streets were bright and crowded, the decorations so overwhelming that Nico felt the need to hold himself as close to Will as possible for the fear that he might lose him. He had to trust that Will knew where he was going, because Nico wasn’t going to be any help in this foreign city.

“Hello, lovebirds!” exclaimed a peppy voice in front of them, stopping them in their tracks.

“Uh, what?” Nico said, and Will cried, “Piper! It’s so good to see you again!”

“Welcome to Valentine City,” Piper said to Nico, and turned to Will to say, “And welcome  _ back _ to you, Will! Happy Valentine’s Day!”

“So you  _ have  _ been here before,” Nico said.

“Of course,” Will replied. “You need a reservation for the busiest day of the year. Didn’t you know that it’s Valentine’s Day?”

Nico shook his head, so Piper said, “Well then let me point out all of the festivities for you.” She reached behind herself and came up with an arrow with a heart-shaped point, and used it to direct their attention around, though Nico found himself distracted by something else. Piper, instead of standing in front of them, was hovering a few inches off the ground, and what Nico assumed was just excessive decoration were two fluffy wings that kept Piper afloat. The wings were littered with different colored hearts, in stickers and occasionally painted onto the wings, which had to have been a real pain to remove.

“And if you two aren’t in love,” he heard Piper say, “then you’d better act like it. Every cherub in the city is on the lookout for anyone that can shoot with one of these love arrows.

“Anyway! The restaurant you’re looking for is right over there--” she pointed her arrow behind herself at a tall, brightly lit building, “--and I think your reservation is coming up soon, so enjoy your meal! Come find me afterward if you need anything, okay?”

Before either of them had a chance to answer, Piper soared into the air and left them to fight their way through the crowds and to the restaurant.

They made it inside just in time, and the hostess had them seated immediately. The dining room was packed and loud, just like the street had been, so Nico and Will had to practically sit next to each other just to have a conversation - not that either of them minded, of course.

Once they were seated, Will pressed a kiss to Nico’s cheek and said, “Thanks for asking me to dinner.”

“It was your idea first,” Nico reminded him.

“Yeah, but you still remembered about it after all this time. It’s romantic,” Will insisted. “You’re cute when you’re being romantic.”

Nico’s cheeks grew warm as he glared down at the pink table cloth that must have matched his complexion at that point. “Yeah, well, you’re cute...all the time.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!! check out my tumblr @buoyantsaturn


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